We are presenting a method referred to as Hydrogen Production by HyPIR Electrolysis. The method increases the rate of hydrogen production from a 1 molar potassium hydroxide and water solution under 6 volts when an infrared laser is irradiated with an optimum wavelength of light through a cell and concentrated on exposed copper electrodes. The irradiating light facilitates the dissociation of water by stretching the hydrogen oxygen bonds and increasing the rate of hydrogen production. Production of hydrogen due to the class 4 laser is altered by the specifications of laser energy, pulses per second, and spot size.

In this experiment, the mechanical properties of 3D printed specimens of different printing parameters were tested under tension. The printing parameters of these specimens were: surface resolution, infill density, and print orientation. Parts were printed in Onyx nylon with a Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printer called the Markforged Onyx Pro. Factorial sets of specimens using all various parameters are printed and tested to create a reference table for future engineering projects. Specimens are then printed as composite variations with continuous fibers in order to understand the benefits a composite may have.

A racecar’s suspension is one of the key contributors to its performance on a track. Each component – springs, shocks, links, etc. – can be dealt with as a variable within a mathematical model. There are hundreds of combinations of these variables, with each change affecting the stiffness ratio. Using the sway bar as the variable of interest, data acquisition, and computer modeling, a mathematical was developed for predicting the stiffness ratio as a function of sway bar diameter. This model can simplify the time-consuming iterative process that is “racecar setup” by allowing a race team to plug numbers into an equation to make predictions instead of conducting on-track test sessions to determine the results of each component change.
PDF: Attached to this email.

In our project, image tracking was employed to provide a honing mechanism for a robotic "scorpion tail" attached to a small Remotely Controlled Vehicle. The car will be controlled wirelessly through a web interface, with mobile phones being the target user. Like the Mario Kart Versus Mode, where multiple cars drive and bump into each other, the vehicle will be controlled wirelessly while the "tail" is actively seeking targets and upon close proximity will "pop" the balloon. Each car will have 3-5 balloons to start, and the objective of the tournament will be to hunt down the remaining cars and “pop” their balloons, until all cars lose their balloons and the victor remains with at least one balloon intact. Python and Google Cloud were used to make a server with for the mobile website, and C++ was used to relay the commands sent wirelessly to the vehicle's two DC motors. Image tracking was implemented using the popular computer vision OpenCV library in python. The research will conclude with a tournament on Pi day (March 22, 2019).

In our project, we aimed to design an autonomous rover similar to that of the popular Mars rovers such as Curiosity. Our rover employs a differential drive system with two continuous rotation servo motors that are controlled with the popular ROS robotic programming library in C++ and Python. A navigation algorithm employs the known position of the robot gathered from a magnetic encoder on the motors and the multiple optical range fidners placed around the vehicle to avoid obstacles on route to its destination. A camera is employed to detect target objects for simple pick-and-place tasks using its DC motorized gripper placed at the front of the vehicle. We have successfully built this vehicle and will demonstrate its capabilities at the 2019 IEEE R5 robotics competition in Lafayette, Louisiana as well as at the SRS presentation day.